Rebels plead for U.S. help as Assad forces close on Aleppo

Rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad called Friday for help from the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, saying the Syrian military is close to encircling the city of Aleppo and cutting off rebel supply routes to Turkey.

In a statement, the Syrian Opposition Coalition, once hailed by the United States as the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people, called for U.S. assistance, warning of dire results if Assad’s forces are able to seize the town of Handarat, just north of the Aleppo city limits. That would cut the Castello road, which is the only route in and out of the rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo, essentially trapping the rebel forces.

Whether the U.S. would even consider assisting the rebels, however, is unclear. A senior military official in the United States said the U.S. military had received similar requests in the past but that he did not know if this specific one had been received. U.S. officials have said that the battle against the Islamic State and not the fight to topple Assad is their current priority.

On Friday, the U.S. Central Command announced that its aircraft had carried out six airstrikes in Syria, all against Islamic State targets near the besieged Kurdish town of Kobani, 70 miles northeast of Aleppo. The U.S. also conducted 12 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq.

The call for help from the anti-Assad rebels is a reminder, however, that there are two wars being fought in Syria, the one between the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, largely in the country’s east, of which Kobani has become the focus, and another that pits the rebels against the pro-Assad military. That conflict is being fought largely in the country’s west, often in areas that have been in rebel hands for two years or more.

Rebel activists say the anti-Assad forces are desperately summoning reinforcements to Handarat.

“This is the most important battle in Syria now, because if the regime succeeds he will be able to isolate Aleppo and take the whole north of Syria,” said Muhammad Badr Eddin, an activist based in Mare, a town about 20 miles north of Aleppo.

A spokeswoman for Legion 5, an umbrella group of rebel units that receive American support through a covert CIA program, said that rebels are using TOW anti-tank missiles in their battle to slow the government advance. The spokeswoman, who identified herself only by the nom de guerre Um Mahmoud, or Mahmoud’s mother, said combat was often hand to hand and that the rebels would “fight to the bitter end.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2014 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Rebels plead for U.S. help as Assad forces close on Aleppo."